Former student earns column space in Express-News

Vincent T. Davis started at the San Antonio Express-News in 1999 as a part-time City Desk Editorial Assistant working nights and weekends while attending San Antonio College and working on The Ranger.

He completed a 3-month fellowship from the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University in 2003 and earned his bachelors degree in communication design from Texas State University in 2006.

Here is his story for Nov. 4, 2019.

During an assignment about the Links teaching youngsters about the election process, photojournalist Josie Norris and I met Tamarya Guess or “Ms. T,” as she’s known to the kids in her after school program.

They greet her with high fives and hugs. They bring their reports to her. And she disciplines them with motherly love.

Here’s the full story: https://www.google.com/…/San-Antonio-youth-counselor-offers…

Links to his earlier stories: https://www.mysanantonio.com/author/vincent-davis/

Former student scores in photo contest

Former student Eric Kayne was honored with second place in the APA San Francisco “Something Personal" contest and exhibition. The 21st event opened Dec. 10 at SOMARTS Bay Gallery. More than 700 creatives, photographers, production professionals and friends showed up to enjoy the Judges' top 100 original personal images on display from 54 talented photographers, listed here. The online gallery contains those 100 images, plus 100 more. See other information here about Kayne.

Former student selected for leadership program

Laura Garcia

Former student Laura Garcia is a recipient of the Dori Maynard Diversity Leadership Program, and she will attend the Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism 2018 conference in Baltimore in September.

Garcia is a Features Editor at the Victoria Advocate, which is the second-oldest daily newspaper in Texas and is only two hours from San Antonio. She was hired in June 2014 as a health and nonprofits reporter and has worked her way up to a leadership role. She’s won an SPJ Sigma Delta Chi Award for public service in 2017 for her investigative work on a series called “Understanding Harvey.” She is now trying her hand at arts and entertainment reporting in Victoria.

Her résumé also includes internships at the Longview News-Journal, the Corpus Christi Caller-times and The Roanoke Times in Virginia. She graduated from Texas State University-San Marcos with a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 2013 where she was president of the SPJ chapter on campus earning an award for Region 8 Student Chapter of the Year.

But she credits much of her success in journalism to her experiences working on The Ranger at San Antonio College.

“The Ranger was where I learned how to really be a journalist. I learned that it’s OK to be tenacious, but also kind. The learning environment somehow made me feel completely supported yet always ready to take on the next reporting challenge,” she said. “I’m not sure how many student newspapers there are where you can learn how to dig into board packets and cover a vote-of-no-confidence against the chancellor, or cover a murder trial. I was also able to go on a weeklong reporting trip along the Gulf Coast covering the aftermath of the BP oil spill. But what still helps me today was the real connections I made with my classmates, staff and teachers."

At SAC, Garcia made a name for herself when she redesigned the newspaper as production manager and she served as editor during one of two semesters in which the paper earned a national Pacemaker Award. She likes to return to SAC whenever possible to speak to students about her experiences and used to volunteer as a counselor and junior counselor for the Urban Journalism Workshop. She is actually an alum of the 2004 UJW program and earning a scholarship to SAC at the workshop is why she ended up on The Ranger.

She has previously been accepted into fellowship programs for the National Press Foundation, Society of American Business Editors and Writers, Association of Health Care Journalists and The Poynter Institute with the Association of Opinion Journalists. She will complete the yearlong Nex-Gen industry mentorship with the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association in October.

Garcia is also mother to a son named David who will be 3 years old next month. She loves sharing her journey as a working mother in journalism and mentoring others. Although the industry can be challenging most days, she said community journalism is immensely rewarding and hopes to do this for as long as possible.

Former student selected for Leadership Academy

Almendarez is third from the left in row one above.

Former student Jolene Almendarez, managing editor of The Ithaca Voice in Ithaca, New York, is among those selected for the 2018 Poynter Leadership Academy for Women in Digital Media — which had more than 600 applicants for 28 slots.

For the flagship 2018 academy, applications were screened for potential, need and diversity across ethnicity, geography, organization size and skill sets.

Participants will attend training during the week of March 18-23 at Poynter’s campus, made possible through the support of the McClatchy Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Newmark Philanthropies, Google, the Gannett Foundation and Cision.

Almendarez wrote on Facebook: “Super pumped to FINALLY be able to announce that I was among 28 people selected from a pool of more than 600 to take part in this leadership academy in March!”

She said she was shocked to see that women from some of her favorite news organizations -- The Texas Tribune, The Atlantic, WaPo -- will also be there.

“Thank you so much to Janis C. Kelly for writing my letter of recommendation and to Poynter for selecting me and giving me stipends to help cover expenses associated with the trip. They really made it happen!” she wrote.

See another story about Almendarez here.

Former student covering California fires.

Reporter Joe Vasquez

Former student Joe Vasquez gained expertise and skills on The Ranger while a student at the college. The national Emmy winning reporter used this practical experience to cover this story with KPIX in San Francisco.

Firefighters Work To Protect Homes From Wildfire In Geyserville

Residents have been ordered to leave and firefighters are working to protect homes from the Pocket Fire in Geyserville, Vazquez reports.

Veteran reporter Vasquez has traveled far and wide in search of good stories.

In a local TV news career that spans more than two decades, Vasquez has hustled after hurricanes and tropical storms in Houston and New Orleans; covered politics and police in Philadelphia; and while in the Bay Area, has covered all the major stories; from the San Bruno explosion, to the “most dangerous street in Oakland” to a faked finger discovery in a bowl of chili in San Jose.

Chalk Day celebrates National Newspaper Week

Students used chalk to express themselves and celebrate freedom of speech on Oct 2. Since 2004, during National Newspaper Week The Ranger has hosted Chalk Day, as a movement to allow students to celebrate the importance of the First Amendment. The narrator is Teresa Talerico, a former student and current adjunct instructor in the journalism program. The event was planned this year by a public relations class.

Former student finds her niche in New York

Former student Jolene Almendarez, a criminal justice reporter and managing editor for The Ithaca Voice, primarily covers crime and courts.

Her journey to The Voice took a circuitous route from sunny South Texas to frigid Alaska and on to the Southern Tier-Finger Lakes region of New York.

Following her stint as a reporter, editor and multimedia editor at the college, she enrolled at the University of Alaska Anchorage to major in journalism.

Almendariz started her professional career in crime reporting at The San Antonio Express-News part-time before being hired at The Post-Standard in Syracuse.

"What I learned at The Ranger is to always make the extra call, double check a fact, ask people to clarify and treat every source like they matter. The Ranger is the best newsroom I have ever worked in. Cherish it," she said.

This is a link to The Ithaca Voice. Read more here.

Former student becomes "legend" down under.

A ride on a busy Sydney, Australia, roadway turned into a TV appearance and a bit of fame as a "Cycling Hero" for a former student.

Jono Wright, a senior copywriter at Ogilvy Australia, lives in Coogee, New South Wales, Australia.

Jono, who answered to "Jonathan" while in San Antonio, worked as a news and features reporter and managing editor on The Ranger while at the college, and his unique sense of humor was evident back in the day to his colleagues on staff and his instructors.

His rise to fame and this video on "The Project" came from confronting a cheeky litterbug who had thrown rubbish out of his expensive automobile onto the street in Sydney, Australia.

Former student stumbles on front page photo

Former student Eric Kayne, a free-lance photographer in Houston, happened on to what appeared to be a typical protest march in Oakland, CA.

But let Kayne tell the story from his Facebook post:

A group of anti-Donald
Trump protestors storm
into Oakland City HalI.

Interesting day yesterday. On spec, I went to downtown Oakland yesterday to photograph anything connected with the court appearance of Noor Salman, the wife of Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Matee

Not five minutes there, I get a call to photograph an unrelated protest literally around the block at Oakland City Hall. At first, it seemed like many protests I've photographed: about two dozen people gathered outside city hall to exercise their free speech. When they began walking, I figured they were going to do a march around the building and then wrap up. I scrambled to the end of the sidewalk to photograph them coming down the sidewalk when all of a sudden, they all started to bolt into a side entrance.

Next thing I know, a protestor is having a tug of war with a security guard who kept repeating "No signs! No signs!" while the protester kept protesting "It's just PAPER! It's just PAPER!"

It's always nice to be surprised (sometimes) and I ended up getting the A1 dominant image in today's edition of the San Francisco Chronicle (extra bonus of headline from a Doobie Brothers song

:-))

See another story about Kayne here

Two former students show their work.

Each year about this time the San Antonio Express-News looks back at the old year and looks forward to the new year. These former students were photojournalists on The Ranger and The Fourth Write. Read their behind-the-work stories about the photos that were selected.

Pictures of the Year: Kin Man Hui

Pictures of the Year: Edward Ornela

Former student returns to her real passion.

Cathy Leigh Duncan

Catherine “Cathy” Leigh Duncan credits her time at San Antonio College for her ease of transfer to the University of Texas, her subsequent bachelor of journalism degree and her current position as director of communications for Institutional Advancement at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio

“Beginning my college education in the Journalism Department at San Antonio College was the smartest thing I ever did. I wish I could take credit for this brilliant decision. But, I can't. I only began at SAC because financially I had no other options,” Duncan said. “Although Highlands High School classmates had teased me about going to ‘San Pedro High’ as they called it, I found a challenging, national-award-winning journalism program."

W.B. Daugherty, Lynnell Burkett, Jerry Townsend and Chet Hunt figured out all my weaknesses and then strove to make me a better writer, speller, designer and interviewer,” she added.

One of Duncan's responsibilities
at the UT Health Science Center
San Antonio is this magazine.

In Daugherty’s classes, one misspelled word meant an F on a story. If it wasn't perfect, don't even think about turning it in was his credo, she recalled.

Weeks after high school graduation, she learned that on second round I received the four-year Baumberger Endowed Scholarship, and after two years at SAC and working on The Ranger, she transferred to UT Austin's print journalism program.

“I can still remember my first semester in a writing class at UT Austin. I was so afraid the other students who had been at UT their first years were ahead of me in journalism knowledge. After our stories were graded, they were put in a box in alphabetical order, she recalled.

Click here to read his newest journalistic effort. Click here for an earlier post about Ben and his time at SAC and the Express-News. This is Ben's latest note about taking a break.

Former student featured on NBC News special

Manson, featured PEOPLE crime reporter and former journalism student Elaine Aradillas. Click here for earlier story about Elaine.

Former student moves from reporting to college PR.

Elaine Marsilio Krift

Elaine Marsilio Krift started in the journalism program at San Antonio College the spring semester after Sept. 11, 2001. "I remember seeing The Ranger's coverage of that day and being even more reinforced about pursuing a journalism degree."

Plus, she said she remembered walking by the journalism building and being in awe. As if to say, "One day I will be part of that program, and it's going to be great!"

"I went to Mr. Chet Hunt's office one day in between classes. (I was so nervous!) I wanted to be in the journalism program, but I didn't know how to make the first step."

She had spent her senior year of high school talking the new journalism teacher into letting her attend Journalism 101 class that year even though it was a freshmen class. "I knew my dream a little late in high school, but at least I had a dream. I knew my vision, and I wasn't going to let up. So, I went and talked to Mr. Hunt and said, 'I want to be in your program.' "

Former student appears on "Good Morning America."

ABC Breaking News | Latest News Videos

Elaine Aradillas, who worked at The Ranger as a reporter and editor, now works for People magazine in New York City. The Marshall High School graduate earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas and a master's degree from Columbia. She was a student at the Urban Journalism Workshop her senior year in high school.

Former student excels in sports broadcasting career

Jason Minnix

Former student Jason Minnix attended the college from 1993-94 and worked for The Ranger covering news and sports.

“While attending SAC, I worked at KTSA radio as the weekday morning show producer and part-time in the San Antonio Express-News sports department doing mainly agate work,” Minnix said.

He ended up withdrawing from school when the KTSA job became full-time.

“I picked up a part-time job on weekends at KZEP and from there decided I would focus on radio and not newspaper.” he said. “In the years since, I have worked at KJ-97, KENS Radio/TV, the San Antonio Iguanas, KGNB/KNBT where I hosted the morning show and was Sports Director for eight years, KLUP and I have been at ESPN San Antonio since the station launched in 2008.”

Twice Minnix has been voted the San Antonio Express-News Readers Choice Award for best local radio personality/team, winning in 2009 and 2011.

In his 20-plus-year career in radio, Minnix has covered all five Spurs championships, nine Super Bowls and every major sporting event in Texas from Final Fours to College Bowl games. Also, he has covered the Dallas Cowboys, Houston Texans, Houston Astros, Texas Rangers, Longhorns, and Aggies.

Former student moved from photography to PR

Teresa Shumaker Wyatt

Former student Teresa Shumaker Wyatt started her journalism and photography journey on the Ranger staff as a photographer in fall 2004-2005.

“That spring I won an award for the cover of The Fourth Write magazine,” she recalled. “While I was at SAC, I did not want to be a reporter. I thought writing was as terrifying as being set on fire.”

But when she moved to a small town in California in 2011, The Mendocino Beacon only had reporter positions open — and reporters doubled as photographers.

“Thanks to everything I had learned about journalism at SAC, they hired me over others who had writing experience,” she said. Because she was familiar with press law and the newsroom process, they were more willing to teach her how to write than to teach someone else how to be a journalist, she said.

Dr. Bryan Butler

Former student Bryan Butler attended San Antonio College twice, once from 1989-1990, preparing to study marine biology, then again in 1994-95, when he became a journalism major.

Taking several journalism classes and serving as sports editor of The Ranger in the spring of 1995 was a game-changer, Butler discovered.

“I remember covering a basketball tournament on campus as one of my first stories,” Butler said. “It was a bit intimidating walking into a gym for the first time and asking questions to people I didn’t know. The story wasn't going to win any awards, but seeing my byline in print got me hooked.”

Michael De Leon

Michael De Leon began writing sports on The Ranger.

Since that invaluable experience as a reporter and editor at the college at a time when sports events were rare on the campus and reporters had to be creative and imaginative to find stories, he has developed a name for himself in journalism, sports and online media after founding a successful NBA blog, Project Spurs, in 2004.

Now, he has added another medium to his stable of sports sites as publisher and editor of TexasRedzoneReport.com.

Paul Zoeller

Former student Paul Zoeller was named South Carolina Photojournalist of the Year, and led his newspaper’s awards for photography with eight wins, including five for first place.

The Post and Courier claimed 97 press awards and the President’s Cup for Excellence on Saturday at the South Carolina Press Association banquet, taking home the most awards among the state’s largest newspapers for the ninth time in 10 years. Awards included 39 for first place, including general excellence and the Judson Chapman Award for public service. The newspaper also won best newspaper website, and for the fifth time in six years was awarded the Reid Montgomery Freedom of Information Award for reporting that advances open government.

Newspapers from other colleges.